Monday, 4 July 2011

Qualification for FCI Worlds 2011

Hello,



The last few weeks have been a great mix of emotions for me. I am currently in Denmark doing a 5 day seminar course, before taking a couple of days off and moving on to Dania Cup starting Sunday 10th July.


The seminars are 4 x 1.5hour sessions a day, where I am trying to give the students a sense of what is happening on UK courses, as opposed to FCI courses. They are all enjoying it so far!


I am judging Open Agility on Sunday, and Agility 1 & Jumping 3 on Thursday, before starting my journey home. I will arrive at Rugby Show on Friday evening.


Now for the best news, last Monday was the Team GB selection day for the FCI World Championships in Levine 2011.


Scott worked sensationally, gaining 4 top 5 places on the day, meaning I finished 2nd overall in the ranking systems, 2 points behind Dave Leach, and some 15 or so ahead of 3rd & 4th who were in turn ahead of the rest of the field.


The rules for the day meant finishing in the top 2 would guarantee you a place in the squad for Team GB, and a further 2 handlers would be selected (as stated on the KC schedule)


I made sure I ran atI pace (2x3rd places), but without making stupid errors such as pushing off contacts or letting the pressure of the final run get to me, (although Scott never misses contacts anyway!) and did what I had to do to finish 2nd.


So I was thrilled with the prospect of running both indiviuals and team at the World Championships. However the management decided that they were going to move the goal posts somewhat by selecting 6 large dogs to travel. I don’t have a problem with that, what I have a problem with is being dropped from Individual runs and only selected in the Large Team.


It is not often I will say I 100% deserve something, but Scott & I thoroughly deserve to run individuals. I don’t even need to start to justify it, but his results this year would do that easily.


I am yet to find anyone who supports the management decision except those who obviously benefited, again I stress I have no personal problem with them (I like and support everyone on the team) it is the fact I deserved my shot at Individuals as well as team.


That said... I will get over that, and I will be proud to stand alongside Anthony Clarke & Dave Leach as the other members of the Large Dog Team at the World Championships 2011. What an honour and a privilege it will be to represent Great Britain. I am so thrilled that Scott has taken me to the most prestigious and biggest agility event in the world, what a fantastic dog he is.


Thank you for all the kind messages I received after qualification, means a lot.


A huge congratulations to every other member of team GB who qualified for France at all three heights, well done. Also to Natasha Wise who did a great job judging.


www.leegibsontraining.com

Monday, 13 June 2011

Thames Show & Barbie and the Cheeky Girls

I had a fantastic weekend at Thames. Not only was the company fantastic and show great fun, but my results were really pleasing.

Scott finished 3rd in the Championship final, just behind Ian Jackson and winner Anthony Clarke. It was a great final and I was very pleased, although winning until 3 dogs from the end was also nail biting!

One Sunday, the heavens opened and the rains came down, but I was determined to do well and after warming up with a 5-7 Jumping win with Scott, I managed to do a stunning round it the Olympia class (part2) and won that also. I had watched some very good runs despite the wet, but Scott flew around and I am now happy that I have qualified for both Olympia semi finals!

Now, the bit you have been waiting for..


As part of our fund raising for 8 of us travelling to the EO in Austria, Anthony Clarke, Jo Tristram and myself had been nominated to dress up as Barbie (Jo) and pop double act, the Cheeky Gilrs. We ran ALL of our classes in the outfit, including the CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL (which Anthony won! & I was 3rd in) in order to get people to donate just a little, to help with our travel costs.

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED SO FAR J

Please though, we need to keep building up our funds, so at Tuffley & Rugby it is the turn of Lucy Osborne, Sian Illingworth, Dave Leach & Shaun Young. Hopefully they will be as humiliated as us haha!

We have an online donation PayPal account – we would really appreciate any support.


Lee

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

How to donate to team GB as we lose any fashion respect in the ring this Sunday!

Okay,

So it appears myself & Anthony Clarke will be the "Cheeky Girls" on Sunday at Thames as along with some other members of the GB EO Team we bid to raise some funds for our trip to compete in Austria in July.

Please click and donate just a little, we really really do value the support.

http://www.acagility.com/wordpress/?page_id=648

Also see facebook for more ideas for some of the other members!

Lee

Monday, 6 June 2011

This weekend at Thames will be sooooo funny...& hugely embarrassing!!


Hinkley Show:

I managed to make silly errors in the Championship course, and the Olympia qualifier, but did get a 2nd, 3rd, 9th (Crufts qualifier) and 20th place with Scott & Jack over the weekend, so it was handling mistakes again.. I need to concentrate better I think!

The show was good, it always is an enjoyable show. Today I had a really good training session with Scott, and tomorrow night I have classes again.

I need some help...

As a fund raiser for the up coming EO trip where I am part of a fantastic GB team, some of us are going to bow down to the public vote and run our dogs all day Sunday in fancy dress..

The vote is on Facebook and I also believe will be featured on agilitynet.co.uk this week. If your on facebook get involved with some ideas.

GET INVOLVED - Get a chance to see the following GB team members in Fancy Dress on Sunday of the Thames Show.


Ant Clarke
Lee Gibson
Dave Leach
Shawn Young
Sian Illingworth
Jo Tristram
Lucy Osborne
Candice Robinson


How to 'Get Involved'. Comment below with your ideas (keep it reasonably clean) The idea with the most likes is what we will do. We will be collecting all weekend at thames, don't worry if you're not there you can donate by following the link that I will post below shortly. GET INVOLVED - help fund the above team members!

We are not asking for a lot, if everyone at the show & who reads this here and on facebook donated just 50p, we would have enough for all the fuel costs, Eurotunnel costs and travel to and from Austria.

Any help is really appreciated.

Thank you.

Lee

Friday, 3 June 2011

Update

Hello,

This weekend I am off to Hinkley show. Its a big show with plenty of qualifier classes and a Champ class also.

Last Tuesday the indoor classes went well, it was a good start but for the first few weeks it will be seeing how everything pans out, but i was happy at the end of the first night.

Will try and take some video's this weekend as only managed to video the bad runs last weekend, and didn't film the better runs Sunday!

Lee

www.leegibsontraining.com

Monday, 30 May 2011

Nottingham Show & LGT this week

Hello,



I am back from Nottingham show now. It was a good weekend although took me a while to get back into the swing of things with handling and timing. I may have been away teaching others some agility handling, but missing nearly 3 weeks with my own dogs meant Saturday my timing was all over the place.


Jack made the Champ final, that was about as good as it got Saturday!


However Sunday improved and I qualified Scott for the Olympia semi finals in September which is great. I also had a 6th and was part of a team that did well in the team event also.


This week is the start of my indoor classes at my new venue. At the moment it is only for people who train with me, but once established I am looking to expand to offer a whole range of classes, themed days, evenings and even competitions maybe!


WANTED: A pipe tunnel, if you have a good one to sell then please let me know. Also a heavy weave base is also wanted. Let me know if you have one to sell at a reasonable fair price.


Many Thanks.


Next up is Hinckley show at the weekend, looking forward to it already!


http://www.leegibsontraining.com/